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Our Summer Holidays so far!

August 4, 2017 by Bel Leave a Comment

The kids have now been off for two full weeks (and a couple of days) so I thought I would update with what we’ve been up to so far – especially since I’m not keeping up with my monthly updates at the moment.

The school holidays couldn’t really have been off to a worse start, than a weather forecast like this ^^ However, I am grateful to work from home and so no matter what the weather, at least I get to spend time with the kids! As they broke up on the Wednesday, we had a couple of extra days that week, to fit in some fun. Thursday was one of my favourite days actually as we went to see Despicable Me 3 (which was average in my opinion), then went to Chimichanga for dinner (which we had never been to before) and finally we went to our local park – Hartsholme – for a lovely walk around the lake.

On the Friday, the girls made a video of themselves doing the Beanboozled challenge and I really must remember to upload it, plus we seemed to watch a ton of movies over the first few days including; Definitely Maybe, 10 Things I Hate About You, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Phantom of the Opera and Save the Last Dance. We also got an invite to my mum’s on Sunday for a roast dinner and that was amazing.

The following week was the first full week and for the first four days we had visitors in the form of Amy and Liv. The girls were at their dad’s on the Monday so Amy and I just spent time catching up, then in the evening Chris, Amy and I had chinese takeaway and watched Game of Thrones. The other days were mostly spent sewing, though Amy and I did manage to go fabric shopping too.

The weather was fairly rubbish all week, starting off raining and ending up sunny or vice versa. After dropping Amy and Liv at the station though, the girls and I took a trip to Norton Disney (a place we had joked about visiting for a while) and luckily the sun stayed out for some pics.

That weekend, we went to LFCC (which is London Film and Comic Con). I had been once before and really enjoyed it, but this time was a flying visit really – all so I could meet Wil Wheaton. Chris was working until 4.30pm Saturday so we headed off down to London after that and stayed at a Travelodge near Heathrow. In the morning we drove to North Ealing station, parked there and caught the train to Earl’s Court and then walked to London Olympia. Grabbing a virtual ticket for Wil Wheaton’s queue was first priority but after that we did some shopping and wandered around stalls. We ate lunch and shopped some more until finally we could meet Wil Wheaton. I had taken a blank Flux card with me for signing and had decided a CREEPER would be best. These are cards that if laid in front of you in the game, means you can’t win. Since Wil is pretty notorious for not winning on his YouTube show “Tabletop”, I thought this would be perfect. He seemed to agree and wrote “IT SUCKS TO BE YOU” and then signed it. Sadly as he was passing it back, he smudged the card but I didn’t mind as I still knew what it was. He said “Now it really sucks to be you!” which made us all laugh.

As I’m writing this post, I realise this all happened almost a week ago (it was Sunday and today is Friday) but it honestly only feels like yesterday! Anyway the next day the girls were with their dad and went to a National Park and built a den. They have a video of that too which I hope to upload soon. The rest of this week has really just been spent at home. I had a lot of work to catch up on after Amy’s visit and so the girls have really just entertained themselves on Minecraft, Slime Rancher, Theme Hospital etc. Yesterday though they started a jigsaw with my mum and once my work was done I joined in too. Then mum left and I couldn’t bear to leave the jigsaw unfinished so we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening making sure it got done!

That pretty much sums up the last two weeks and I’m so glad its been a combination of lots and nothing. I always think its important to have plenty of down days during the holidays so you don’t feel completely knackered, but you also need days were you do things together, or else you end the holidays feeling like you didn’t do anything! Hopefully I’ll update again soon with whatever else we get up to!

Making a Cosplay Costume

November 10, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

In Summer, Amy and I (plus Kariss who we met there) attended SFCC (Sheffield Film and Comic Con). Last year we were attending LFCC (London Film and Comic Con) but unfortunately the timing just wasn’t right to get to that one this year. I’ve also attended MCM Comic Con in London this year, back in May. However in the end we decided not to cosplay for that, so SFCC was our first cosplay of the year.

Amy and I decided on Disney cosplay (surprise surprise). She was going as Briar Rose and I was Belle. Both choices are their “peasant” dresses, so in a way we’ll be a pair.

I started on Amy’s first as I couldn’t get the fabric I needed for mine without ordering. The first thing I did was find a pattern that would work for what I wanted (I only ever work from patterns). It was pretty easy and didn’t take me too long. Ironically it was another Disney pattern, one used to make Elsa’s Coronation dress.

Next was to pick out some colours. Luckily both costumes comprise of basic block colours, so cotton poplin is perfect for what we need. I headed off to Boyes, picked out come colours and then started to work with the pattern and fabrics.

So once I cut out all the pattern pieces I was sure about, there was the grey to figure out. I picked one that I thought might be a bit dark and when placed together with all the other fabrics, it was decided between Amy and I, that it was too dark. Sadly this began our own 50 Shades of Grey disaster which took about 8 fabric samples from Ebay before locating. However with the grey only effecting the skirt, it was easy to still continue and make a start.

Once the top was done and the grey was found, it didn’t take long to sew it all together and add the zip. It was lucky too as I ended up making Kariss an Alice in Wonderland dress and apron, before also making my own Belle outfit. I was fairly pleased with how they all turned out too.

I have a post on Closet Geek dedicated to all the Cosplay outfits I’ve made so far. But keep an eye out as I will be updating it before too long I’m sure!

Easy (Disney) Cosplay Tips

October 16, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

So as you know, I love to make costumes and I love to cosplay. I’ve been to a few conventions now – LFCC last year, London MCM in May of this year, SFCC in August and a small Lincoln one in September, two of which I cosplayed for. However not everyone has the ability to sew (or the money to buy handmade) so I decided to share some tips about costumes you can threw together easily, using clothes readily available in stores and online.

For MCM Comic Con, I was originally choosing to go as Go Go Tomago. If you haven’t seen Disney’s Big Hero 6 then you’ll have no idea who that is – and if you haven’t seen it, then you should! Go Go is an awesome female character and her “everyday” look is really easy to replicate.

The costume is basically made up from a black leather jacket, white t-shirt, black (and purple) leggings, black shorts and black trainers. Depending on how exact you’re wanting to be with your costume, sourcing the exact items might prove tricky. However if you’re happy to improvise, you should get most things fairly easily.

I started with the leather jacket. Of course I wasn’t going to get actual leather, as that would be expensive. I headed off to Ebay to find something cheap and secondhand. The important thing to note about Go Go’s jacket was it’s style – the way it zips up, neckline etc.

Pokerun_Womens_Marylin_Leather_Jacket_zoom

Can you spot the difference between the two?

After the jacket, the rest should come fairly easy. A simple white t-shirt, relatively non nondescript. Black leggings, with purple poking through rips – either a double layer of leggings, black over purple with tears cut in the black – or black leggings with rips, patched up underneath with purple material. Black fingerless gloves. Black trainers. Black shorts. Depending on how close you’re wanting to match, I’m sure you can find black trainers with a splash of purple and black shorts with a splash of red. Failing that you could always add your own – paint for the trainers and ribbon for the shorts.

Last but not least, this leaves the hair. Of course if you’re radical you could cut and dye your own (I actually tricked all my facebook friends into thinking I’d done that) or you can buy a wig.

So long as you plan fairly far in advance (allowing time for shipping from China) you should be able to pick up a relatively cheap cosplay wig. Mine was around £10 mark and took about 3 weeks to arrive. There are some great bargains out there, for all things cosplay, the more time you allow and the further it can travel from!

Things to Look Forward to…

July 10, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

I don’t know about you, but I need things to look forward to in life. Little milestone, events, days out, birthdays, holidays – whatever it is, just something in the not too distant future to look forward to. This time last year, I had a countdown running to LFCC (London Film and Comic Con) which was the first convention I’d ever attended AND the first time I’d cosplayed. I was also counting down to a holiday in Paris during October half term, though sadly that didn’t happen – and finally a wonderful trip of a lifetime to Florida the following Easter. Well all of that has been and gone now and I struggle at times to find things to look forward to. In fact, until a few weeks ago I really didn’t have any set dates and events penciled into my calendar. However, all that has changed!

picture from June 30th

Sheffield Film and Comic Con – A few weeks back, Amy and I decided we were dying to go to a convention again. I attended MCM in London during May but because I took the kids, I didn’t get the same level of enjoyment as last time and I also didn’t dress up. However Amy and I are going with the sole purpose being to cosplay and I’m excited! Amy is going as Disney’s Briar Rose (Aurora when she lives in the forest) and I’m going as Disney’s Belle in her blue peasant dress. I’ve already started on Amy’s costume and as soon as I can get the right grey for the skirt, it will be finished! I need to start on my own but I have a good idea what I’m doing.

Paris Weekend – As I mentioned before, last year we were supposed to have a family trip to Paris but we had to cancel it for a couple of reasons. I have been dying to go to Paris for pretty much all my life and I was devastated when all our plans crumbled. Over the last few months I’ve been looking into various ways to get to Paris cheaply, as ever since Florida my finances have been in a fairly poor state. There is a coach company that offers really good options, but also sites like Into the Blue experiences who offer not only day experiences, but also holidays too. They actually have a couple to Paris in fact. However in the end it looked like there might be another opportunity to go to Paris (see below) and so I jumped at that. Finances were figured out, options were looked into and even baby sitters were considered. But then I started to feel guilty that I hadn’t been with my family and maybe Chris and the girls would be sad if I went without them. In stepped my mum (a total hero) and offered to take us all away for the weekend in May and then there was a second thing added to my look forward to list!

Fairytales IV – As you can probably tell, I’m a huge fan of conventions. I’ve only been to a few but they are now becoming something I look into ALL the time. Well every year in Paris (for the last 3 years) there has been a Once Upon a Time convention and every year I’ve wanted to go. Last year we’d arranged a blog meet far too close to the date of the convention and this year we knew things would be tight after Florida. However next year there is really nothing stopping us… so let’s just say we’ve penciled it in and perhaps even booked a hotel ;)

There are lots of other things on the cards, MCM Comic Con in October, Storybrooke in April (though I have to admit to being jealous of SDCC that’s on this weekend), plus I hope to have the odd day here and there with the kids during Summer holidays. Amy and Liv are coming over in a few weekends time and we’re going to see Inside Out and even though that’s something small, again it’s just nice to have something to look forward to.

Where has summer got to?

June 11, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

In previous years, Summer has usually been and gone by now. Well not really, but you know we’ve usually had that week in May where there’s a really hot week and after that, nothing really comes close, bar a day here and there. We were promised a heat wave this June and so far… well it’s a little disappointing to be honest. Sure, the sun is out and the rain has disappeared for a little while, but it’s still not HOT, is it?

When we were on holiday in Florida, in April, the weather was too hot. Us Brits just aren’t really built for that type of hot. That said, I really enjoyed how warm it was and other than worrying about hats and suntan lotions, myself and the girls really soaked up the sun. If the air conditioning had been working properly and we’d actually been cool in the villa, I think perhaps I could have lived with the Florida heat. Chris on the other hand grumbled the whole time, desperate to get back to the weather of our own country. Now we’re back I think I’ve been suffering from a bit of SAD. I need some nice warm days to get me back in a positive mood. I’ve sold all my Florida dresses on Ebay and it’s a little depressing. Would you believe I’m still wearing a leather jacket and a scarf most days?

So to get myself feeling a little warmer, I decided I would share with you some of the things I love most about summer!

Family Holidays – Two years ago we had a very impromptu holiday to Legoland. The weather was absolutely beautiful for majority of the day and even when it rained, we just got wet but not cold. I love having the kids off for six weeks, despite the fact they can get on my nerves a little at times. I always encourage Chris to book a week off in July/August so we can do something, even if it’s just for a couple of days.

Family Days Out – If we can’t manage a full holiday, we at least manage a few days here and there. Last year we went to Warwick Castle, Cadbury’s World, Eureka and National Forest Adventure Farm. Sometimes I take the kids by myself, other times Chris comes too and if all else fails, my mum is always on hand to tag along.

LFCC – Alright so I’ve only been once last year, but I’d love to go again this year too. In May we went to MCM Comic Con and it was great to see the difference between the too, but I’d still really like to head down to London in July and go again.

Learning new things – Last summer Megan finally learnt to ride her bike and I imagine this year Lily will too. Summer is always such a perfect time to learn to bike ride, swim, fly a kite etc. When the sun is out you always feel more inclined to do things. We always walk into town instead of drive too.

Adult Days Out – Normally the girls go away with their dad for a few days in Summer and he has them overnight at least once a week. This allows for adult days out and since these are so few and far between, I like to make the most of them. Last year we obviously had LFCC for a whole weekend but also I went to both Thorpe Park and Alton Towers. As much as I love the kids, it’s great to have time without them too.

There are loads of other things I like about summer – BBQs, trips to the beach, being able to wear dresses and so on. However these are just some of my top picks. However instead of a sun hat and sandals, I’m far more likely to be wrapping myself up in cashmere and wooly jumpers. Luckily Summer is great time to grab some bargains on Winter clothes!